1The Group of Seven

The G-7 emerged in the 1970s among the then-seven-richest countries in per capita terms: the U.S., Japan, West Germany, France, the U.K., Italy and Canada. Before then there were informal meetings of the G-5; Italy joined in 1975 to create the G-6 and Canada in 1976 to make the G-7.

Until the mid-1980s, however, the G-5 remained the main economic policy coordination group. It was most prominent during a period in the mid-1980s when its members tried to coordinate exchange-rate policies—most notably in the Plaza Accord of 1985, where the five agreed to a depreciation of the dollar, and the 1987 Louvre Accord, signed by six of the seven because Italy declined, to stabilize the dollar.

The G-7 has continued as a talking shop on economic policy, but the days of exchange-rate coordination have passed for now.

The presidents of the European Commission (the European Union executive) and the European Council (on which the 28 EU member states sit) also attend G-7 meetings. The summit planned for Brussels in June–in place of the canceled G-8 summit in Sochi–will be the first ever hosted by the EU.

2The Group of Eight

Russia informally sat in on G-7 meetings in the 1990s, and President Boris Yeltsin was invited formally to the group in 1998 as a way to bring Russia more firmly into the international economy. In fact, Russia continued to sit out of some of the economic debate. With the involvement of Russia, with its narrow energy-based economy and autocratic politics, some critics felt the grouping became less coherent and mostly symbolic.

Boris Yeltsin in 1997

Reuters

3The Group of 20

As countries outside the G-7 grew in economic importance in the 1990s, the group wasn’t broad enough for global economic coordination to be effective. The first meeting of the bigger group, now including “emerging” economies such as China, India, Mexico and Brazil, took place in 1999 in Berlin. Initially its meetings were of finance ministers and central bank governors, but the group took on greater importance after the 2008 financial crisis when leaders met for the first time-–the initial summit was in Washington–to discuss economic policy coordination, mapping out a plan to pull economies from the crisis and improve global regulation of financial institutions.

4The Group of 10

The G-10 is probably the granddaddy of the G’s. Its origins date back to the early 1960s when a group of countries agreed to enlarge the lending capacity of the International Monetary Fund. Along with what later became the G-7, it also included Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden. Luxembourg was also granted a seat, and Switzerland joined later. The group met annually to discuss economic, banking and financial matters, but its role has been superseded by the G-20 and the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. The G-10 last issued a communique in 2007.

5The Group of 24

This group was established in 1971 to coordinate the position of developing countries on the role of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. It meets twice-yearly ahead of the semiannual meetings of the two institutions. Its members are a subset of the Group of 77, which was established in 1964 to articulate within the United Nations the economic interests of developing economies.